Information about the Cox Family and the Elkhorn Tavern
From what we know of the history of the Cox family and the Elkhorn Tavern, Jesse C. Cox purchased the land and the building that would become the Elkhorn Tavern in October of 1858 from Samuel Burks, son-in-law to William Ruddick, the man who constructed the first home on the tavern site. The first building was a two story log cabin, which Jesse later weather boarded with lumber from the new sawmill on War Eagle Creek. Jesse’s wife was Polly Parker Cox and they had at least seven children, although some of our sources state that they had up to 12 children. According to Lu Linville, Richard Cox’s granddaughter, the names of Jesse and Polly Cox’s children and spouses are as follows (some may be have incorrect spellings). Because we have little direct information from Jesse Cox or his children, this list and the 1860 Federal Census are all the information we can draw upon to study the Cox children. Attached to this email will be a copy of the page from the 1860 Census that lists the Cox family.
1. Sons
a. William S. Cox, married Fanny Pieburn

b. James P . Cox, married Catharine Glassock

c. Richard John Cox, married Phoebe Glassock (first wife)

d. George Henry Cox, married Mary Mahala Lee

e. Joseph Columbus Cox, married Lucinda Pratt

f. Elias Franklin Cox, Bell Ruddick

2. Daughters
a. Ann Eliza Cox, married Mose Townsend

b. Elizabeth Ella Cox, married George Townsend

c. Lydia (or Ladetha) Cox, Married Oliver Van Schorick

d. Lucinda Cox, married Silas Stone and then Mac Hammer

e. Mahala Cox, never married

Jesse and Polly, both natives of Kentucky, moved first to Indiana and then out to Kansas where they owned some property near Troy in Doniphan County, where Jesse, his wife Polly and their daughter Mahala, are buried. Jesse’s gravestone states that he was born in 1798 but the 1860 Census states that he was 58 years old, meaning his birth year would have been 1802. That gravestone states that Jesse passed away in 1875, making him either 77, based on a birth year of 1798, or 73, if he was born in 1802. Polly’s gravestone states she was born in 1803, making her 57 during the 1860 Census and making her 78 when she passed away in 1881.
According to our records, Jesse Cox bought 313 acres of land, which included the building that would become the tavern, from Samuel Burks for $3,600. Jesse set up some of his grown sons on land along the Military Road/Telegraph Road. George H. and Frank he settled on land southwest of the Tavern, James to the northeast and Joseph and his wife lived at the Tavern with Jesse and Polly. Jesse and Polly did own slaves, and as far as I know, they owned five: one older gentleman who used to bring the water from the spring up to the house, two younger men who worked the blacksmith shop and helped Jesse Cox with other chores, and their two young ‘wives’ who worked at the Tavern helping with domestic chores, childrearing and other ‘feminine’ duties. I put wives in apostrophes because it was illegal for slaves to be married in the legal sense. After the Civil War, these slaves stayed with the Cox family in Arkansas, and were later given plots of land nearby and took the Cox surname.
During the Civil War much happened to disrupt the daily lives of the Cox family. In late April or early March, we know Jesse, probably with the help of a son or two, moved most of his livestock up to his property in Kansas. Polly, the children still living at the Tavern, and the Cox’s slaves, all stayed in Arkansas at this time and were present on the day of the Battle of Pea Ridge. According to family accounts we have, Polly, Joseph and his young wife Lucinda, Elias (Frank) and the Cox’s slaves all hid in the Tavern cellar during the fighting.
From one family account we have from descendents of George Henry Cox, Jesse’s third or fourth son and husband to Mary Mahala Lee of Texas, George joined the Confederate Army and may have fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge. According to family tradition, George Henry took his young wife to stay with her family in Belton, Texas after which he joined the Confederate Army. The tradition and the account that we have states that some of his brothers also joined the Confederate Army but we can find no record of any of Jesse’s other sons joining either the Union or Confederate armies during the Civil War. The evidence I have found that George Henry did fight in the Civil War is found on the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, a website run by the National Park Service, on which it shows a George Henry Cox belonging to the 6th Texas Cavalry, Company I (and K), with a rank of Private both when he entered the army and when he was discharged. Records show that Company I of this regiment was present at the Battle of Pea Ridge, being with McCulloch’s division at the Leetown Battlefield and then covering the Confederate retreat off the battlefield on March 8. Whether this is Jesse Cox of the Elkhorn Tavern’s son George Henry Cox is not definitive because nothing that I have found links the two except the family account published in a family genealogy book.
In early 1863, after the Union troops moved out of the Pea Ridge area after the Battle of Prairie Grove in December 1862, Confederate Guerrillas burned down the Elkhorn Tavern.
Polly Cox and her young son Elias, moved to Kansas for the remainder of the Civil War and Jesse and Polly lived permanently in Kansas for the rest of their lives. Joseph and Lucinda Cox rebuilt on the Elkhorn Tavern site in 1865, after the Civil War ended. It is disputed whether the first reconstruction was a true likeness to the tavern as it was before the Civil War or whether it was built as a one story log cabin. By the 1880s, the Tavern looked much as it did during the Battle of Pea Ridge, according to comparisons between battle remembrances and photos from the 1880s. Despite this debate, descendents of Joseph and Lucinda remained on the property and lived in the Elkhorn Tavern until the state of Arkansas purchased the land in December 1959.
On March 7, 1960, the 98th anniversary of the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas donated the land to the United States as part of Pea Ridge National Military Park. The National Park Service restored the building based on photos from the 1880s by removing the additions and modern amenities the family had put in the tavern since the reconstruction at the end of the Civil War. The Elkhorn Tavern as it stands today is a reproduction of what the tavern looked like in the 1880s. There are some furnishings inside the structure, but we have little information on how specific rooms or areas were used by the Cox family.
Attached to this email are pictures of the Elkhorn Tavern, Jesse, Polly, Joseph and Lucinda Cox, and files pertaining to information about the Cox family.

Bibliography
Bond, John W. The History of the Elkhorn Tavern. Eastern National Publication, 2007.
Gailey, Barbara Jean (Dawe). “The Cox Family of Elkhorn Tavern.” The Benton County Pioneer Vol. 42 No. 3, July-September 1997.
“The Cox Family, the Aldridge Family, the Doporto Family.” Compiled by Ernest Young Cox and Elizabeth Brown Cox. Fair Oaks, California: 1985.
“Notes on the Jesse C. Cox Family with a partial genealogy of his four sons who lived in Benton County, Arkansas.” Pea Ridge National Military Park Research File.
1860 Census Records
Copy of a letter from Lu Linville listing the names of Jesse Cox’s children and her descent as his granddaughter. January 2, 1978. Pea Ridge National Military Park Research File.
Detailed Solder Report. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. Accessed 9/14/2011.
www.itd.nps.cwss/Personz_Detail.cfm
Confederate Texas Troops. 6th Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Wharton, Stone’s). Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. Accessed 9/14/2011. www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/template.cfm
List of Cox Family Members, possibly a copy from a page written by a descendant. Pea Ridge National Military Park Research File.
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